Wrestling Introduces Rounds

During an FBI sting to capture Irish terrorist Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen) things go drastically wrong only for New Orleans cop Danny Fisher (John Cena) to save the day when he captures Jackson unfortunately causing his wife's death in the process. It leads to Jackson going down for a long time whilst despite the disapproval of the FBI Fisher being promoted to detective. But a year later and Jackson not only escapes from prison but he kidnaps Fisher's wife Molly (Ashley Scott). With the FBI not willing to help Fisher must complete 12 challenges set by Jackson in order to get his wife back. The question is not whether Fisher will complete the tasks but what is Jackson really up to?

Let me put some facts down for you; "12 Rounds" not only stars wrestler John Cena but is produced by WWE Studios and if that wasn't enough it is directed by one time action main man Renny Harlin. Now anyone who chooses to watch "12 Rounds" expecting something more than just an okay action movie needs their head testing because there is no way on earth that "12 Rounds" with those involved would be anything more than just an okay action movie at best. Basically the movie is the equivalent of junk food, enjoyable at the time but leaves no lasting impression other than being ridiculously preposterous.

Now I mentioned Renny Harlin who directed "Die Hard 2" but maybe he has been watching the third one "Die Hard: With a Vengeance" as "12 Rounds" has a slight similarity with Miles toying with Danny Fisher by making him complete a series of challenges, get to a location by a certain time, answer a certain phone and so on. But instead of being a clever movie all these challenges are is a way of giving John Cena a series of action scenes to flex his muscles in. And the combination of Harlin's eye for explosive action and Cena delivering action is enough for a Friday night in with the guys, pizza and beer.

Aside from that well "12 Rounds" does also feature Aidan Gillen who could have been a great bad guy except he really needed to camp it up and take some lessons from Alan Rickman to play it over the top. In a way that is the most disappointing thing as Gillen is by no means evil of sadistic enough in this to be fearful or entertaining.

What this all boils down to is that "12 Rounds" is a ridiculous movie but it is very much what you expect and basically delivers the sheer dumb entertainment you expect from an action movie which has the credentials of Harlin, Cena and WWE Studios.